Under Construction

18012013

It’s been fascinating to watch our town “develop” over the past year and a half. Roads have been paved, power lines put up, water pipes laid. New restaurants have opened, new houseshave been built, new ways to travel to Siem Reap are now available.

Currently, there are two building projects in particular that have been affecting our daily lives. The first project is a new house that they are building directly next to ours. Instead of being serenaded by the usual wedding music, we have been woken up by the sounds of generators and power tools for the past couple of months. And on top of the normal level of dust, we have a few extra layers that, after being stirred up next door, entered through our screen-less windows and settled on our wooden floors.

The new house next door

Unfortunately, I don’t get any reprieve from the dusty air or noise when I head to work since they are currently putting up a new building at the health center too. I wrote about the new building in October and how its construction confused me. Since then, I have been told that there are rumors that the health center could be converted into a hospital again in two or three more years. No one seems to know for sure, and they insist that isn’t the reason the new building is going up though, so who knows.

They’re making progress on the new building at the health center

Anyway, our lives are filled with noise and dust, but also change. As I said, it’s been incredibly interesting to watch things change so quickly. It makes me wonder what this little town will look like in five or ten years.